


Stories of the Second Self: Fall of Giants

by John_Steiner



Series: Alter Idem [25]
Category: Urban Fantasy - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:48:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22515751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner
Summary: Steve Yard wasn't an intrepid reporter, just doing a story in a university STEM building groundbreaking. However, a new story came up on campus when a desk suddenly crashed through the windows of an upper floor. Someone had not taken their dismissal from the school well, and Steve was shocked when reporting from the scene.
Series: Alter Idem [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618813





	Stories of the Second Self: Fall of Giants

"In a peculiar development," the morning show news host said, reading from a prompter embedded into the side of her desk, "We're getting live video of a faculty member being escorted off the premise after refusing to leave on news of losing her job. Our very own Steve Yard is on the scene. Steve, what can you tell us?"

The feed switched over to the view of a camera operator escorting a young reporter with perfectly groomed black hair, as he ventured into the front entrance of a university building. "Gillian, we've just gotten inside and are heading toward the commotion. We were doing another story on the campus, when without warning a desk flew out of a window of the third floor."

"Steve, we're told that campus security is on that floor now," Gillian, the host said for the audience, as Steven and the camera operator ascended the stairs, "Do they have any idea what cause the desk to be ejected from the building?"

"Whoa!" Steven ducked back into the stairwell, and an instant later a chair shot past where he was standing and smacked the wall with metallic groans of steel bending.

"Steven, are you okay?" Gillian asked.

"Yeah, Gillian," the much startled Steve replied, offering a severe expression to the camera. "Jeeze, that was close! Ah, we're going to try again, Gillian."

"Ma'am, you cannot engage in that sort of activity unless you want to take a trip downtown. Do we need to arrest you?"

Sobbing of a deep, yet feminine voice responded, "I put more than ten years into this university! Why are they doing this?"

Steve glanced back, before waving the camera to follow him down the hall into the room he gauged as the source of the commotion.

"Hoah!" Steven clearly couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Sitting on the floor with her back to a wall, and crying into her hands, was a woman still nearly as tall as the campus officers standing near her. The cops had their hands on their belts, ready to draw zip-ties, taser, or sidearm, depending on what the large woman did next.

"I'm sorry about your job ma'am," one officer consoled, "I really am. But I had been ordered to escort you off the campus grounds. Do you understand that?"

She nodded, but the woman didn't reveal her face, and kept crying.

"It's too hard to believe," Steven said for the benefit of the broadcast, "Gillian, this is a woman who, if standing would be around nine feet tall."

Another officer saw and heard Steven and stepped out to meet him with a hand out. "Sir, I need you to keep back. We'll have this situation under control, but for your own safety we can' have you in here."

"I'm with ITV News, officer," Steven replied.

Nodding the cop acknowledged, "Yes, understand that you're a reporter, but for your safety and that of your camera man, I have to ask you to keep your distance."

A deep inhale sounded, and the camera shifted to show an Hispanic woman turning to see the camera, tears leaving streams down her striking face. She rose up to her knees and made her way to the door, whereon officers maneuvered to cut her off.

"Are you broadcasting now?" the giantess asked them.

"Yes Ma'am," a dumbfounded Steve replied, "Can you tell us what's happening?"

"Sir," the cop started to say.

"What're you afraid of?" the large woman shouted, giving multiple officers a jolt. "They fired me because of how tall I'm growing. After everything I did for this school's engineering program, they're throwing me out like a temp!"

"Ma'am, please," the first cop tried again.

"Officer, what harm can telling her story be?" Steven said, adding a tinge of implication for ratings. "Can I at least interview her outside?"

"I'm sorry, what's your name?" the cop asked Steven with a curt tone.

"I'm Steven Yard with ITV News," he answered.

"Well, Mr. Yard," the cop said, "You're not on public property, so I don't know if you have permission to transmit on the campus."

"Actually, sir, I do," Steven cryptically said.

"From my understanding, Mr. Yard," the cop's tone hardened, "You were allowed to record your coverage on new STEM building groundbreaking. That does not include this issue we're addressing here."

"Fine!" the giant woman declared, and easily shouldered past the other officers. "I'll get off the campus to talk to Steve here."

Despite her sudden cooperation, the officers still escorted her along with Steven and the camera off the grounds. Once standing on the sidewalk in front of the building, Steven directed the camera operator to angle their shot of the giantess with the college in the background.

"Ah sir," the cop waved off, shaking his head, "No."

"What?" the woman shot back, whirling around. "We're off campus."

"Mr. Yard, you can't have the camera showing the school," the cop ordered.

"Oh god!" the giant woman stepped over to where the camera followed with the grounds out of the shot.

"Okay," Steven tried, and brought out a hand mic for the giant, "What's your name and can you tell me why you were let go and ordered off the college?"

"I'm Dr. Luciana Rodriguez. They said I was being fired, because parents and other 'concerned citizens' worried about student safety with me teaching classes here," the giantess answered, waving at the university.

The camera operator panned the camera just enough to get a distinguishable building into view and quickly turned back to the woman.

"May I ask what you teach here?" Steven asked, then stood on his tiptoes to hold the mic up to her.

"I taught mechanical engineering for twelve years, and helped with robotics research tied with the university's NASA projects," Dr. Rodriguez replied, and then waved helplessly. "But then my growth started. I don't know why, it just happened. I was able to manage my work, and keep teaching when the auditorium rooms were available. Just...."

Then her expression contorted in grief, as Steve prodded, "I'm sorry you're going through this, but I'm sure you'd like people to know what's happening."

"Two of their security guards are werewolves," Dr. Rodriguez explained, waving at one of them who still stood nearby. "And I'm the one people are scared of? It's not right!"

Gillian reminded viewers that she was still at the studio desk. "Steve, what do we know about these werewolves she mentioned? Does the university have a policy about that?"

"Dr. Rodriguez, does this institution not worry about werewolves on campus?" Steven rephrased the question.

"I don't know," Dr. Rodriguez shrugged, and then regained composure. "Maybe they think they won't be next if they boot me off the grounds. I don't know what I'm going to do, or where I can go from here."

"Ah, I saw the desk outside, and the shattered window on the third floor," Steve mentioned, "What happened with that?"

"I guess I got angry when they told me I had to leave," Dr. Rodriguez replied, "I didn't even know I'd lost my job until security told me."

"Do you think that administrators feared to tell you in person?" Steven asked, and then tried to be funny. "I mean that chair shot was a pretty mean throw."

"What?" Dr. Rodriguez suddenly stared Steven down, lower than he already was. "C'mon. Don't you get upset when fired without warning?"

"I can't say that's an experience I can relate to," Steven admitted. "Or being," and waved up at her, "You know, being that tall. I'm five inches shorter than average."

That got a smile out of her, but then she turned to the university, as the wind caught her hair and brushed out for a picturesque shot of longing and nostalgia on camera. "Twelve years. It's my Alma Mater, and I'm thrown out like a disruptive protestor."

"Alright Steve," Gillian cut in, "We have to break off for now. The governor is about to give a speech about the emergence of these extraordinary people."

The view switched back to the studio, but in the upper corner Dr. Rodriguez kept gazing back at the school, while the breeze let the sunlight spy through the trees behind her.


End file.
